Transport Scotland management of e-mails: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for two questions regarding mailbox searches with spam emails.

Response

The answer to each question is as follows:

Question 1

If an email is sent to an email address which ends in '@transport.gov.scot', and the email gets directed to a SPAM folder immediately upon receipt by the server, rather than to an in-box folder, and is subsequently manually deleted whilst it is still in a SPAM folder, would that email and/or a record of that email appear in a search for that email when the search criteria given are the date upon which the email was sent, and the email address from which the email was sent?

Answer 1

Scottish Government uses software called Personal Message Manager (PPM), this allows Scottish Government colleagues to manage emails which are identified as potential spam by the Scottish Government mail server. If the email is in PMM then the email would not be searchable by the user from their mailbox. However, if the email had been manually released from PMM to the user's inbox, then it would be searchable within a user's mailbox.

If the email was in the Junk Email folder of a user’s mailbox, then it is searchable. If the user deletes the email from Junk, it will move to their Deleted Items folder, which is also searchable. After 28 days, unless the user deletes it from there manually, it will be moved to the Recoverable Items folder, where it remains searchable for another 28 days.

Question 2

If an email is sent to an email address which ends in '@transport.gov.scot', and the email gets directed to a SPAM folder immediately upon receipt by the server, rather than to an in-box folder, and is subsequently auto-deleted deleted whilst it is still in a SPAM folder, would that email and/or a record of that email appear in a search for that email when the search criteria given are the date upon which the email was sent, and the email address from which the email was sent?

Answer 2

If the email is in PMM, the email will remain for 28 days before being automatically deleted. Once deleted, it will no longer be searchable.

If the email is in the Junk Email folder within an individual's mailbox, the email is not subject to automatic deletion. It will remain searchable in the user's inbox for up to 6 months, after which time it will be automatically moved to their Online Archive, where it continues to be searchable.

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